Groningen student union GSb is the big winner of the university elections. The party won seats on three faculty councils and will therefore be represented in four faculties in the coming academic year.
The results of last week’s university elections were announced on Monday afternoon. The GSb ran in six faculties but did not manage to secure seats in all of them.
Nevertheless, it is now the largest party in student representation, with a total of eight seats across the faculties of Law, Behavioural and Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Arts – two seats in each.
‘It’s just amazing’, said GSb chair Jitske Wielers on Monday afternoon. ‘We entered this with the aim of representing students’ interests, and to then be elected in three new faculties – I’m honestly at a loss for words.’
Collaboration
Wielers acknowledges that the strategy to participate in more councils was inspired by student party De Vrije Student, which lost seats to the GSb. ‘We really have to congratulate them – they’re strong opponents’, she said. ‘But we do things differently.’
‘For us, it’s not just about being represented in as many faculties as possible. We also work with national student union LSvb, and with the provincial and municipal governments of Groningen. Our goal is really to build connections between those groups and to make a difference – from the local faculty level all the way up to the national stage.’
Higher turnout
A notable trend this year is that turnout rates at most faculties were slightly higher than the previous year – both among students and staff. Only in the staff elections for the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences and University College Groningen did fewer voters show up.
Even so, turnout at both faculties remained high: 62.3 percent for UCG staff and 52.2 percent for Behavioural and Social Sciences staff.
Rector Jacquelien Scherpen was satisfied with the turnout, citing current global political developments and funding cuts to higher education as possible explanations for the relatively high engagement.
University council largely unchanged
In the university council – the UG’s ‘parliament’ – the distribution of seats remained largely unchanged. The Personnel faction retained nine seats and the Science faction holds three. Among the student factions, De Vrije Student held on to its two seats.
As happens nearly every year, Lijst Calimero and the Student Organisation Groningen (SOG) traded one seat between them. This year, SOG gained one and Calimero lost one, putting both parties on five seats each in the next term.
The two new student parties that participated this year failed to win any seats. In Groningen, the Vrijmoedige Studenten Partij (VSP) – a right-leaning party that has already gained representation in cities like Utrecht and Amsterdam – did not secure a spot. Neither did Stem Voor Studenten (SVS).
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